In 1957, a group headed by engineer L.S.Troyanov, devel-oped a prototype of a heavy tank, named "Object 279".
Notable is the four-band design (two pairs) to lower the ground pressure of this heavy vehicle, probably the only one of its kind in the history of combat tanks. It had great tract-ability in snowy and swampy terrain. The hull was covered by a thin elliptical shield protecting it against HEAT ammu-nition and preventing it from overturning by the shock wave of a nuclear explosion. The project was abandoned in the late 1957.
The only sample of this unlikely vehicle is today (2002) ex-hibited at the Kubinka Armour Museum outside Moscow.